We have come a long way in the world of politics. We have moved from a world with "give and take and collaboration" to a world of "do it my way or we will have a scorched earth policy and the world will end."
I started college with an ambition to work in government. There were lots of us. We were young and intelligent and knew we were going to change the world.
I was blessed in 1968 to take a political science class from Professor Gary Wilhelm in the Government at CSUS. Professor Wilhelm designed our class to become a college Harris poll. The Harris poll was an American market research company tracking and polling political campaigns. I was very excited.
The class started by developing a set of questions with very specific wording to get objective answers. The class was divided into two-person teams and each team had approximately thirty families to contact. We had identification cards to prove we were 'official' representatives of the university and off we went.
What a challenge to contact people by phone and tell them what we were doing (we had a script.) and then set up appointments for interviews. The work took a couple months with each interview taking about an hour. We ended up producing a poll with a 10% plus or minus swing. Our poll said Richard Nixon would be the next president. Wow, we felt so empowered doing this and I never forgot the process.
The most disturbing fact I learned is that the memory cycle of the American people is about three or four days. Thus we were able to watch the candidates reverse themselves every four or five days. Scary........also the media was so much more objective than it is today.
Our modern reporting is so askew that I don't trust any single source. It is why I go to the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Post, the Melbourne Herald Sun (yes, Melbourne Australia!), and the Wall Street Journal to try to achieve a somewhat balanced perspective.
This of course gives me the opportunity to share a sister story from Janet - the legend. Again she has always said what is on her mind. Joe, my mother's significant other, had a father that was the original campaign for Hubert Humphrey. So sometime in 1966 or 1967 me mother and my sister were invited to a very private fundraiser for Humphrey. It took a donation of $10,000 to get invited. Humphrey was working the room when he came to my mother and sister. My sister was 12 or 13 and had already found her voice.
Humphrey thanked the two of them for supporting him financially and being at the fundraiser. My sister looked at him and said, "I didn't vote for you - I don't even like you!" Humphrey burst into laughter and said he appreciated someone whoe said what was on her mind. Meanwhile the only word my mother used was 'mortified.'
Janet - the legend lives, I would not want her at either convention for she would speak words many of us may be thinking.
Meanwhile I think Elizabeth McCord should run for President. She was a great Madam Secretary of State...........
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